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The Newfoundland Time Zone consists only of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Officially, the entire province is in the Newfoundland Time Zone by legislation.[2] In practice, however, Newfoundland Time is observed only on the island of Newfoundland, its offshore islands, and southeastern Labrador communities south of Black Tickle. The rest of Labrador, from Cartwright north and west, is in the Atlantic Time Zone along with the rest of Atlantic Canada. Southeastern Labrador prefers Newfoundland Time in part to synchronize with the schedule of radio broadcasts from Newfoundland.

This time zone exists because of the location of the island and the fact that it was a separate dominion when the time zones were established. The island of Newfoundland lies squarely in the eastern half of the Atlantic Time Zone, exactly three and a half hours from Greenwich. Since it was separate from Canada, it had the right to adopt its own time zone. While the entire province lies west of the standard meridian for a half-hour time zone, 52.5 degrees west longitude, this is also the near exact meridian of St. John's, the province's capital and largest city. In 1963, the Newfoundland government attempted to bring the province into conformity with the other Atlantic provinces, but withdrew in the face of stiff public opposition.[3][4]

Daylight saving time is observed throughout the province. In 1988, the provincial government experimented with double daylight saving time, moving clocks ahead two hours during daylight saving time instead of just one. This move proved unpopular[citation needed] in the fall when children started going to school in the dark. In 2006, the province enacted an extension to daylight saving time,[5] starting in 2007, following the lead of the United States and other Canadian provinces.

This unusual time zone puts the island of Newfoundland an hour and a half ahead of Central Canada, a half hour ahead of the rest of Atlantic Canada, and half an hour behind Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Because of this, it will hit milestones of time before (almost) any other part of the continent, a quirk that draws attention to Newfoundland. For instance, the Newfoundland releases of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Halo 2 were publicized across Canada. Also, it is very common for the lone private TV station in the province, CJON (NTV), to use a "World Television Premiere" bumper at the start of some programming that airs before most other North American stations air them.

Likewise, in the case of Canada-wide broadcasts timed to air at the same local hour in the rest of the country through the use of a different feed for each time zone (most commonly the CBC's radio and TV networks), Newfoundland uses Atlantic-time broadcasts. References to programs airing at "6:00, 6:30 in Newfoundland" are commonly heard across Canada. However, whenever the province's two full-fledged stations, NTV and CBNT (both based in St. John's), originate local programming, they usually refer to it as "coming up at 6:00, 5:30 in most of Labrador."